Italy Must Learn Their Lessons - Lambruschi

Italy's women must go back to the drawing board after failing to qualify for next month's EuroBasket.

Their 75-58 defeat in Aalst by Belgium last week sealed the Azzurre's fate in the additional qualifying round.

Belgium followed that result up with a 61-56 victory in Slovakia to leave all three teams in Group B with 2-2 records, but the Slovakians ended up winning on points difference and now they take on Ukraine and Poland in a battle for the one EuroBasket place still up for grabs.

Lambruschi was not surprised by the margin of defeat against the Belgians.

"Belgium had more motivation because by winning with a big margin, they still had a chance to get closer to Slovakia," Lambruschi said.

"Our players were tired. Simona Pallardini played very few minutes because of injury and at the end with our young players on the court, we recovered a little bit but it was too late.

"My team has to learn how to play away from home where you need a different approach.

"We can't have any fear when we go onto the court. We have to have more trust in our own strength.

"Instead, we have played as if we had our handbrake on the whole time.

"In any case, our performances have been positive because we had a young team that achieved two victories and two defeats.

"But we do seem to have an inferiority complex.

"We need to get rid of it. On the court, we need to use all our talents.